EmailA day after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced strict flight restrictions for America’s most expensive fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor, over safety concerns about the plane’s oxygen system, Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) raised questions about how the move would affect America’s national security and operations abroad.
McCain, the ranking member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee and vocal critic of the $79 billion F-22 program, noted that a number of the planes had recently been deployed to Southwest Asia — reportedly to a United Arab Emirates base just 200 miles from Iran‘s mainland – ”to promote regional security.”
“Please describe what effect, if any, these measures will have on the ability of the F-22s deployed overseas to execute their intended missions,” McCain wrote in a letter to Panetta Wednesday.
The restrictions, which keep the planes in close proximity to potential landing strips in case of a mid-air emergency, were announced two weeks after an ABC News “Nightline” investigation found that the advanced $420 million-a-pop fighter jets have been plagued by a rare but potentially deadly oxygen problem for years. Despite multiple investigations, the Air Force has been unable to pinpoint the cause.
In another case, a malfunction that the Air Force has yet to identify caused one pilot’s oxygen system to shut off during a training mission in Alaska in November 2010 just a minute before he died in a fiery crash.
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A senior defense official said the Pentagon will “certainly” respond to the letter and, without going into specifics, told ABC News the planes would “remain operational in areas where geographic proximity to landing strips permits it.”
“The full range of our capabilities will not result in any operational impact to Afghanistan or elsewhere,” the official said.
Despite being deployed abroad, no F-22 has ever taken part in a combat mission since the $79 billion fleet went combat-ready in late 2005. From Afghanistan and Iraq to the U.S.-led “no-fly zone” over Libya, the Air Force said the sophisticated jets simply haven’t been needed yet.
McCain’s question of combat-readiness also came a day before the American ambassador to Israel said the U.S. has done its military planning and is “ready” to strike Iran if diplomatic talks over the country’s controversial nuclear program fail.
In addition to the senior defense official’s comments, a spokesperson for the Air Force referred ABC News to comments made by Pentagon spokesperson Capt. John Kirby during a Pentagon briefing Tuesday.
“The majority of F-22 pilots are out there flying it every day,” he said, noting the planes’ deployment to Southwest Asia. “There have been no problems. It is flying.”
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I came to the defense of McCain when I THOUGHT he might be having a change of heart regarding the Raptor (i.e, re-open the production line) – Now I see the only change of heart is that he’s NOW asking if the Raptors can perform the rather important mission that he not too long ago stated, along with Gates, that it didn’t have (which ultimately led to the F-22s demise.) Now I see how mistaken I was to assume that the real capabilities of the Raptor (or any REAL air dominance aircraft, for that matter) are understood and appreciated by those with the influence to axe it.
So, since it is now considered the norm to quote R and D expenses when talking about the cost of aircraft, how is the $2 Billion-a-pop F-35 going? You know, the “affordable” aircraft that is so much more flexible and necessary than the F-22… How many are based within striking distance of Iran? How many are available to push back against China as it applies terroristic pressure tactics on its neighbors? When’s it gunna show us how flawed it is against the J-20 and T-50 that, according to Gates and McCain, don’t even exist and will be sorely outnumbered by F-35s very shortly?
And last but not least, what is our Ambassador thinking acting as a mouthpiece for Israel in order to incite Iran,?! We just got out of 10+ years of war and have BIG problems in the Pacific? Israel MAY be a sovereign nation, but it certainly doesn’t mean it’s wise to join their cause, as anyone should be able to surmise by now. And what good can come of boasting that we’ve drawn up battle plans to support our ittle brother? – REALLY? We did this same sort of thing before the useless war in Iraq. Time for us Americans to smarten up and use intelligence like the civilized people we perceive ourselves to be, rather than boasting and swinging like the wild men who are the real enemies, always one swing away from a strikeout. We’ve already swung (at least) 2 times, let’s think this through people.
Posted by: Raptor1 | May 18, 2012, 3:49 pm 3:49 pm